


Hide and Seek

by orphan_account



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Hide and Seek, Suspense, but with a spooky twist, idk how to tag this, or at least an attempt at suspense
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-01
Updated: 2018-11-01
Packaged: 2019-08-13 22:26:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,972
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16480910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Excerpt time:This had been a terrible idea. Why in the world had they gone through with it? And more so, why had they thought it was a good idea to split up? That was always how people died in these stories.“I don’t like this, I don’t like this, I don’t like this,” Hunk rambled over and over again, voice filled with fear. Not that Lance could blame him.





	Hide and Seek

**Author's Note:**

> Happy All Hallows Eve! I honestly don't know what this fic even is, but it was fun to write, even though it probably is really weird to read. Sorry about any mistakes or things that just don't make sense, I just sort of wrote this while never looking back. Hope you enjoy though.

 

This had been a terrible idea. Why in the world had they gone through with it? And more so, why had they thought it was a good idea to split up? That was always how people died in these stories. 

“I don’t like this, I don’t like this, I don’t like this,” Hunk rambled over and over again, voice filled with fear. Not that Lance could blame him.

At least he had found Hunk. He was pretty sure everyone else had run off in all different directions, like the fools they were, and it probably would have taken less time if Hunk and he split up to cover more ground, but it was less scary to do this together. Safety in numbers and all that. Not that anything about this stupid idea felt safe anymore.

They had made it down several hallways without problem after some minor scares, he had been glad that Hunk was there with him especially in those moments, had it been Keith, Keith never would have let Lance live down the fact that he had gotten scared by a mirror. A mirror. 

To be fair, he had only seen it out of the corner of his eye and the figures reflected in it  made it look as though there were suddenly other people in the room with them. Also, after he screamed, it startled Hunk enough to make him shriek too. 

Lance and Hunk had just made it safely to the end of another hallway and had just turned the corner when they heard it.

_ Thump. Thump. Thump. _

A pounding noise, and a loud one at that, coming from the hallway they had just left.

_ Thump. Thump. Thump. _

They were getting louder, and faster, almost as if someone was running toward them.

Lance tried to summon his bayard as a force of habit before he remembered that he wasn’t in his armour. He gave Hunk a frightened look, and Hunk gave it right back.

**_Thump. Thump. Thump._ **

The footsteps were too close now to do anything, and Lance braced himself. If they were going to die here, he was happy that he was at least with his best friend.

**_Thump. Thump. Thump--_ **

The footsteps stopped. Maybe--

“BOO!” Pidge shouted, leaping out at them. Lance and Hunk shrieked, even though they knew it was coming. Pidge doubled over laughing.

“You- should have- seen- the looks- on your faces. Oh sweet quiznak- you screamed-- so high--” Pidge gasped out between laughs. 

Lance could feel his face burn as his heart rate slowly declined. “Shut up. For a moment I forgot that we were doing this stupid game and I thought we were going to die.”

“You were the one who suggested this ‘stupid game’,” Pidge appeared to have been able to calm her laughing to more manageable giggles now. 

“No, I suggested an innocent game of  _ hide and seek _ , not this monstrosity that you have made my childhood game out to be.”

“It’s Halloween, you think that I would allow myself to settle for mere hide and seek when we could be playing hide and seek with the goal of scaring the seeker? Nuh-uh, I didn’t figure out the date on Earth through a process that would take too long to explain right now for nothing. On Halloween, we play scary games.”

Lance let out a huff and rolled his eyes. Pidge ignored his actions, moving to lead the group. “Now it’s just Shiro and Keith, right?” She asked, not bothering to turn around as she began leading them down the hallway.

Lance followed, as did Hunk after a moment of hesitation. Taking a few quick strides, Lance easily caught up to Pidge. “Yeah. I feel like Mullet should be fairly easy to find though, he probably got impatient waiting in his hiding place after a minute so he’s probably just wandering around now. Maybe if we play our cards right, we can scare  _ him _ .”

“I dunno, Keith does have that whole  _ patience yields focus _ jazz that Shiro told him once. I feel like he could wait out a situation if he wanted to. Besides, if he’s determined to win this thing, I doubt that it will be easy to find him,” Pidge barely spared Lance a glance as she searched the hallway.

“Psh, I still don’t believe it. Also, why did you come out so soon? I thought that you would have wanted to win it.”

“At the cost of missing out on when the others scared you? No way. You scream so high, it's so funny. I wouldn’t miss out on it for the world.”

Lance spluttered. “Shut up, Pidge.”

Throughout this entire conversation, Hunk traveling behind them kept on nervously glancing around. He was sure that someone could be hiding  _ anywhere _ , just waiting to jump out and scare them. He could have sworn he heard footsteps, but it was coming from the ceiling above them, which didn’t make any sense because all the walls and floors were sound-proof…

“Hey, do you guys hear that?” Hunk asked timidly. Lance and Pidge both stopped walking and talking at his question, taking a moment to listen. 

“Hear what?” Lance asked after half a minute passed in silence.

“I thought that I heard footsteps. I must have been imagining it. This game is freaking me out. I really don’t like this game, have I mentioned that?”

Lance patted his arm sympathetically. “I know, buddy, I know. We just gotta find Shiro and Keith.”

“If you are really freaked out, you can go hang out with Coran and Allura. You don’t have to stay,” Pidge was suggesting, but Hunk was already shaking his head.

“No, I’ll be fine. I just, I just don’t like this.”

“Duly noted. Now, let us carry on!” With that Lance marched dramatically forward, causing Pidge to roll her eyes at his dramatics as she followed, and Hunk hurried after.

He still couldn’t shake the sound of footsteps above his head, though Pidge and Lance’s argument over whether or not Lance shrieking was or was not funny did help to drown them out somewhat.

 

***

 

“For the last time, it’s just my manly battle cry. Everyone should have one to frighten away little gremlins who startle them.” Lance continued arguing. Pidge didn’t appear to believe it.

“Sureee. My only question is how could you call it a ‘manly’ battle cry when it sounds like an small toddler screaming for her mommy?”

“Just shut up, Pidge. It’s manly because I’m a man and it comes from me. Therefore, it is manly.”

Pidge squinted her eyes at Lance. “You, a man? By whose standards?”

Lance let out a squawk and turn to Hunk, standing on the opposite side of him. “Hunk, buddy, my man, back me up. I’m the manliest man you’ve ever met, right?”

Hunk was still freaked out about this whole situation, but he found it in himself to squint at his friend in a very Pidge-like manner. “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you were Shiro. My bad.”

Lance let out a loud cry and clutched his hands over his heart before dramatically crying, “Betrayal. Oh, betrayal of the highest form. My best friend, my comrade in legs, my blood brother, has betrayed me. Oh whatever shall I do?”

“Perish.” At Pidge’s word, Lance raised the back of his hand to his forehead and closed his eyes as if he were a damsel in distress about to faint. He probably would have gone all out and fallen to the floor had a voice not suddenly spoken.

“Wait, if he’s Shiro, then who am I?”

Lance’s eyes flew open and he jumped back screeching. Hunk whirled around and let out a yelp of his own, and felt his cheeks warm as he saw Shiro standing behind them with a smile on his face and he realized that Shiro had just heard Hunk say that about him.

PIdge just startled cackling again at Lance’s scream. Lance flushed up, but glared at Shiro.

“Where did you come from?” Lance demaded.

Shiro shrugged his shoulders. “I’ve been here and there. I started following you guys a couple hallways back.”

How had they not heard him?

Answering their unasked question, Shiro shrugged again and said, “I can be pretty light on my feet if I want to be.”

“That-- was-- great, Shiro. I loved it.” Pidge gasped, wiping tears from her eyes. Lance directed his glare at her. 

“You were at least a little bit scared, right?”

“I eat fear for breakfast. I’m not scared of a little jump-scare.”

“Ooo, edgy-mcedgerson over here, aren’t we Pidge?”

“No, that’s Keith.”

“Speaking of Keith, we should start looking for him,” Shiro suggested, starting to walk. Everyone followed.

Hunk could still swear he heard footsteps above him.

 

***

 

“It’s been like, three hours, how long is it going to take to find Keith?” Lance complained, dragging his feet.

“Okay, first of all, no. It’s only been one hour and twenty three minutes, and second of all, weren’t you saying earlier that Keith was going to just be so easy to find?” Pidge asked.

Lance groaned. “I was wrong, okay. I admit it. I feel like we should have put better boundaries on this game. We’ve searched  _ everywhere _ within the boundaries, but the boundaries are so big that he could have moved like five times before we cover his hiding spot again.” They were only allowed in a quarter of the Castle, but even that was too big when you factor in its size.

“I mean, we would still have this issue if the boundaries were much smaller. Keith is an expert at hide and seek. One time at the Garrison me and Matt and Adam and a couple of others convinced him to play one saturday, and I didn’t see Keith again until class on monday.” Shiro had a fond look in his eyes as he remembered.

“Wait, that was Keith who did that? I remember Matt telling me a story about you guys playing hide and seek and there was a cadet who hide for two days, but I never believed him.”

“Yep. That was Keith.”

“How did he do it? Did he eat at least?” Hunk worried.

Shiro shrugged. “I’m still not entirely sure of how he pulled it off. I’m pretty sure he just avoided anyone playing somehow, and probably snuck into the kitchens for food.”

“Well, that’s just great. We now have to somehow find the dude who can literally hide for days on end. Why did no one think that this was important information to know  _ before _ we started to play this game?” Lance complained.

Shiro set a hand on Lance’s shoulder in what was likely supposed to be a reassuring way. However, his words immediately took away from that feeling.

“Don’t worry, Lance. I get the feeling he won’t hide for days this time. You forget that the goal of this game is not just to last the longest, but also scare the seeker. He’ll probably make a move pretty soon.”

Lance felt a trickle of dread travel down his spin as Shiro lifted his hand and made as if to continue on, only to pause when the coms switched on.

“Terribly sorry to interrupt your game paladins, but would you mind joining me in the medical bay for a tick? That is, only if you have been found. I do not wish to ruin the game, I just need to see something, I’ll be as quick as a rampaging tuzi!” Coran’s voice crackled over the coms. 

“On our way, Coran,” Shiro replied as he changed his course.

Hunk allowed himself a breath of relief at the interruption. Surely Keith wouldn’t jump out and scare them while they helped Coran, right? Another plus is that he hadn’t heard the footsteps for a while.

 

***

 

When they entered the med bay, it was to the sight of Allura and Coran standing side by side near one of the healing pods. Allura had her hands grasped together in front of her and a small smile on her face while Coran seemed even happier than usual, bouncing up and down on his heels.

“Oh wonderful! Is Number Four the only one who hasn’t been found yet then?” Coran asked after quickly scanning over their faces.

“Yes. What do you need us for Coran?” Shiro asked.

“Um, well, I need you for, um-” Coran started stuttering, dropping back on his heels.

Lance was about to ask to see if he was okay when suddenly the doors slide closed with a large bang, causing all the paladins to whirl around, Lance letting out yet another shriek.

“What-” before Pidge could finish, the lights flipped off.

Hunk and Lance let out little screams, and even Coran let out a cry after a moment. Then there was a hissing noise and the lights flipped back on.

“What just happened?” Lance demanded, spinning back around to face Allura and Coran, only to see that only Allura was there. “Where’s Coran?”

Allura opened her mouth as if to say something, but then the lights flipped off again and all that came out of her mouth was a scream that was cut off. Lance blindly reached out his hand, only to feel Hunk doing the same and grasped it.

When the lights flipped back on, Allura was gone.

“I don’t like this, I don’t like this, I don’t like this,” Hunk began rambling, and Lance had to agree with him. Lance saw that even Pidge was scared by the way she began pressing closer to them, and offered her his hand.

Right as she grasped it, the lights flickered off again. Shiro let out a small cry before going silent.

The lights turned on again, and Shiro was gone. The trio began to press closer, Hunk and Pidge grabbing hands too to form a triangle with everyone back-to-back. The lights switched off again.

Lance closed his eyes and waited for Hunk or Pidge to scream or to find out the reason himself, but after a minute passed in silence, he squinted them open again.

Hunk strained his eyes desperately into the darkness, trying to see anything, but it was no use, it was pitch black.

Pidge gasped as she realized something. “Guys, it’s just Keith. He’s just messing with us. And doing a very good job at it, I might add.”

“Please, I don’t think that this is Keith. Mullet wouldn’t be able to pull it off.”

“Then who is doing it, Lance?”

Lance hesitated a brief moment before answering, “Umm, intruding Galra?”

“Maybe it’s a new species of aliens who pick off their prey one by one in the dark.”

“Yeah, what Hunk said.”

Pidge rolled her eyes at the boys, and slipping her hands out of theirs she asked aloud, “Hey Keith, could you turn on the lights now?”

The lights suddenly turned back on, leaving Lance blinking rapidly toward the ceiling to get his eyes to adjust. Then he lowered his head, and was greeted with the sight of Keith right in front of him.

Lance let out another screech, his voice was going to hate him tomorrow. Lance’s scream also startled Hunk enough for him to let out a scream too.

“Pidge, did you have to ruin the surprise?” Keith asked to Pidge, who came up on Lance’s side. 

“You let it drag on too long, sorry,” Pidge said, not sounding very sorry at all. Her voice grew excited as she spoke again, “But how did you pull that whole thing off? And where have you been this whole time? This was probably the best scare of this game in any of the rounds I’ve ever played. You have to tell me all your secrets, and I am so beating my brother when we find him.”

“Okay, I guess?” Keith said looking slightly confused. “First I have to release the others.”

“Release the others-- Where did you put them?” Keith did not answer Lance’s question, instead going over to the control panel in the middle of the room, and did something that caused three of the pods to rise. None were on, so Allura, Coran, and Shiro were all able to step out the moment the pod stopped moving. 

“Did it work? Were you able to win?” Coran eagerly asked.

“Wait, you were in on this?” Lance demanded.

“Yes, as was I,” Allura supplied.

“And I vaguely knew that Keith was going to steal me somehow. He warned me about it in the beginning,” Shiro added.

“So you had a plan right from the beginning. Smart,” Pidge said, then plopped down on the floor, patting the ground besides her in a invitation. “Now tell me everything.”

That was how the paladins all heard the story of how Keith had safely hidden away in the vents, and spent a lot of time following them undetected until he decided to go get Allura and Coran in on his plan and get the paladins to the med bay.

(“I knew I heard footsteps!”

“Wait, does that mean you heard everything we were saying?”

“Yes. And I do have to agree with Pidge, your shrieks are hilarious.”

“Hey!”)

Once that story was done, Pidge decided that the floor was terribly comfortable and that she wasn’t getting up. Lance had to agree with her, and decided that it was a good opportunity to introduce the Alteans to ghost stories, so that is where they stayed, long into the night, swapping stories. Some were scary, some were funny, some were weird. But they all gave off the same feeling.

A feeling that Keith couldn’t name until he finally laid in his own bed, staring at the ceiling as his thoughts raced as he tried to identify it.

Then it clicked.

It had felt like family.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Ah yes, I love cheesy endings. Anyways, I know that this work is probably one of my worst one quality of writing wise as well as jumpiness, but it was fun to write, and I hope it was fun to read.  
> Also, I got this idea of hide and go seek with jump scares (idk what to call it) from loving playing hide and go seek in the dark. I'm great at it, if I do say so myself. Last summer I was playing it with my friends and I was hiding in the basement and they were taking forever to come down, which was their mistake for giving me time to plot :). Once they got at the bottom of the stairs I started to sing ring-around-the-rosies in a really slow pace, and they all immediately screamed and ran back up stairs and spent like the next ten minutes freaking out and trying to find the courage to go back down. It's probably my proudest achievement (not really, but it was fun).  
> Why am I telling you guys this? I guess I just felt like it.  
> Also, this like isn't huge news or anything, but I will most likely be taking a break from uploading on AO3 next month to do my own piece of writing for nanowrimo. I'm just letting you know in case any of you like my stuff and are interested in knowing my next upload.  
> Anywho, thanks for reading! You guys are the best!
> 
>  
> 
> -MasterOfMyDestiny


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